No matter how much I post about the importance of general English and the unimportance of IELTS, students are so reluctant to accept my words. In fact, it seems some students don’t even know what general English means.
Here’s the harsh truth: IELTS courses are pretty much useless (with the exception of Writing). There’s nothing you can learn in IELTS courses which you wouldn’t learn in general English courses. Even in our speaking marathons, we help students to ‘unlearn’ whatever BS strategies they were taught or learned by themselves, as opposed to teaching them something new.
As soon as students switch from studying English to ‘studying’ IELTS, they stop using amazing words like ‘beautiful’, ‘nice’, and ‘great’. Instead, they start using words like ‘picturesque’, ‘breathtaking’, and ‘fascinating’, thinking these words will get them a high score in IELTS.
Boy are they so wrong!
As someone who got a 9.0 in Speaking twice, back-to-back, and a 9.0 overall, I can assure you, there is no such thing as IELTS speaking. There is speaking and there are mistakes.
I used the word ‘great’ 4 or 5 times in Part 1 without trying to use ‘fancy’ synonyms like ‘fabulous’ or ‘top-notch’. I used the word ‘boring’ 3 or 4 times without using words like ‘mundane’ or ‘lackluster’. If anything, these ‘C1 - C2’ words will lower your score because you’re not speaking like a native speaker.
I’m telling you, if only ‘IELTS instructors’ stopped teaching ‘IELTS speaking’, everyone would be getting a much higher score in the exam. A couple of months ago, I did a mock exam with this student who was taking IELTS classes in another center. When I asked him, “Where are you from?”, his response dropped my jaw:
“To be honest, I’m from Andijan.”
Now, it’s not the fault of the student, obviously; the guy just didn’t know any better. But you know what? His teacher also didn’t know any better. Most ‘IELTS Instructors’ don’t know any better.
The solution to this saddening situation is two-fold:
On the one hand, experienced IELTS instructors should organize trainings, paid or free, for instructors with less expertise. Until when are we going to let students waste their time by learning useless techniques such as skimming and scanning, instead of working on their comprehension? Until when are we going to let students learn stupid, memorized introductions for Task 1 and Task 2? Someone needs to do something about it.
On the other hand, students themselves should fix their attitude. Instead of obsessing with IELTS, they should take a step back and focus on their general English. Ask your learning center if they offer any Intermediate, Upper-intermediate, or Advanced classes. Believe me, it takes only 1 - 2 months to prepare for IELTS; the rest boils down to your general English.
I know not many people will read the whole post from cover to cover. But if you did, read it again. 😂 And stop wasting your time, money, and effort by joining stupid IELTS courses when you can’t even use Present Simple correctly.
Yours with love,
@ozodbek_sk
